While eliminating elected school boards and replacing them with appointed boards or mayoral control is all the rage, AEI resident scholar Rick Hess argues in the April issue of the American School Board Journal that there is no reason to expect improvements to follow from such changed forms of governance. Appointees tend to get quietly captured over time by interest groups, Hess contends, and, given deep disagreements over the objectives that schools are to pursue and how they should pursue them, what we really need is more democratic school governance, not less. In another article in the same issue, Harold McGraw III describes the qualities and practices of a good board, whether it be a corporate board or a school board.
"The Voice of the People," by Frederick M. Hess; "Creating the Culture," by Harold McGraw III, American School Board Journal, April 2003 (not available online)